–Andy Maskin W’99

Murray Polner G’51, Great Neck, N.Y., writes, “After teaching in a high school and colleges in Canada and the US, I became a longtime editor of magazines and books, wrote three books related to the Vietnam War and others dealing with foreign policy, religion, and sports, the latter a biography of Branch Rickey, the baseball executive who brought Jackie Robinson into the game. I’m now the book-review editor and blogger for the History News Network and other online sites.”

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James Lillie W’53 L’59 writes, “My novel Pacific Rebound was a national best-book finalist a couple of years ago, and Justice will be republished in February. They rose from the ashes of a law career representing the International Tennis Federation, many well-known corporations in their transactions and activities around the globe, and working in and out of our nation’s Capitol with and for the federal government. Justice is a murder mystery involving the US Constitution and the people called upon to select the justices to serve on the court and dispense ‘justice.’ Nothing like a good play on words.”

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Robert A. Natiello WG’56, a retiree in Sedona, Ariz., has been awarded first prize in the annual literary competition of the Arizona Authors Association. “My winning story, ‘Aunt Gussie and the Enemy Within,’ is my ninth literary award from AAA: four have earned first prizes and five have been nominated for the national Pushcart Prize. The winning story is now appearing in the 2017 edition of the Arizona Literary Magazine.”

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Ernest Pick C’58 writes, “My new book, The Club of the Pleiades, will be published in London this July; it will be available on Amazon.”

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Judy Alpert Goffman-Cutler CW’63 GEd’64 and Laurence S. Cutler C’62 co-founded the National Museum of American Illustration (www.americanillustration.org) in Newport, R.I. They wrote in September that the museum “was named ‘Rhode Island’s Top Museum Worth Traveling For’ by TripAdvisor’s FlipKey. It also broke its single-day attendance record this summer; pretty darn good for a museum that does not advertise and has no budget for such envisaged. Our Frederick Law Olmsted Park, located across the street, was named a Level-I Arboretum.”

Dr. Nici Nelson CW’63 is a visiting research fellow at Goldsmith’s, University of London, where she had lectured in anthropology for most of her academic career. Last September, she received the Distinguished Africanist Award from the African Studies Association UK.

Idaherma Williams GFA’63, www.idaherma.com, a painter and printmaker in Princeton, N.J., wrote in November, “My one-artist exhibition is now at The Plastic Club in Philadelphia. I was past president of the American Color Print Society and this exhibition is in honor of my work as a woodblock artist.”

Celebrate Your Reunion: May 12-15, 2017

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Bob Levin L’67 writes, “Now a retired attorney, I am also the author of six books. My latest may be of particular interest to readers of my vintage and points of origin: Cheesesteak, a memoir, which was published by Spruce Hill Press in 2015.”

David Matz ChE’67 and Roberta Rubenfein Matz CW’67 celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Dec. 25. “We met in high school and decided to go to Penn together. We were commuters until we married and moved onto campus for the last semester. Roberta is retired and is a teacher at the LifeLong Learning Institute at Immaculata University. She recently was certified as a Silver Age Yoga instructor. David is still consulting in his field and teaching at Immaculata’s Institute. We hope to see old friends and classmates at our 50th reunion this May.”

Eric R. White GEd’67 GrEd’75 co-wrote the chapter “Academic Advising” in the 5th edition of Rentz’s Student Affairs Practice in Higher Education. He is the emeritus executive director of the division of undergraduate studies and emeritus associate dean for advising at Penn State University.

Ed Bronstein GAr’68, Philadelphia, had a benefit show of his paintings at the historic Bartram’s Garden in October.

Ronald L. Kahn W’68, a senior partner at Ulmer & Berne LLP, in October received the Ramey Award for Distinguished Community Service from the Ohio State Bar Foundation. He has practiced law for 43 years and has spent 38 of those years helping the Ronald McDonald House of Cleveland.

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Dr. Frederick M. Herrmann C’69 has written a 250th anniversary history of Rutgers University that has been included on the Rutgers 250 website.

Sandra Shapiro L’69 is a partner of counsel and member of the real-estate practice group at the law firm of Foley Hoag LLP in Boston. In October, she was recognized by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly as a “2016 Top Woman of Law.”

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Craig Burgess GEd’71 recently published A Fleeting Glimpse of Paradise, a book of poems and photos collected over 30 years and 41 visits to Hawaii.

Dr. William C. Nelsen Gr’71 writes, “I am currently serving as interim president of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. Former president of Augustana University (S.D.) and Scholarship America, the nation’s largest private-sector scholarship organization, I am a member of the Registry for College and University Presidents; ordinarily members serve in interim leadership positions in college or university settings. This is the first time a member has been asked to serve in a seminary setting, in this case to help give leadership in forging a new vision and future for EDS, a long-term leader for social-justice issues in the Episcopal Church.”

Celebrate Your Reunion: May 12-15, 2017

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Lynda Barness G’72, owner and president of I Do Wedding Consulting, writes that I “was named an ‘Industry Leader’ by Wedding Planner magazine last year. She published the book, I Do: A Wedding Planner Tells Tales, in 2015.”

Michael J. McTague C’72 writes, “I retired in June from the Intel Corp., after 32 years work as a design engineer. My latest years were spent as a senior staff analog engineer in the data-center group doing power-delivery and power-conversion design for high-performance computers. At Penn, I was a physics major with a minor in English literature.”

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Judge Mark I. Bernstein L’73, Philadelphia, in September retired from active service on the Court of Common Pleas after almost 30 years of service, and he received the Philadelphia Bar’s Justice William J. Brennan Jr. Distinguished Jurist Award, which “recognizes a jurist who adheres to the highest ideals of judicial service.” He noted, “Although I will be retiring as a sitting judge, I will not be retiring from our great legal community. I will continue teaching and participating with the American Law Institute, the Pennsylvania Jury Instruction Committee, and on the board of PBI. I will be doing mediation and arbitration work.”

Paul S. Gilman MtE’73 is vice president of technology electronic materials for Praxair Inc., in Danbury, Conn. He was named the 2016 winner of the William Hunt Eisenman Award from the American Society for Metals International “for his outstanding technical leadership in industrial research and the development of materials for the electronics and aerospace industries.” He and Ellen Elias Gilman CW’73 welcomed their fourth grandchild in August and continue to divide their time between Montebello, N.Y., and Long Island’s North Fork.

Bruce Rice C’73 writes, “I retired from Wawa Inc. in 2015, after 18 years as a real-estate manager. I’m now spending winters in Florida and summers in Maine, and still miss Fiji Island, Doyle’s Deck Dual Flash, the Tsetse fly, and the two o’clock club.”

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John Quelch WG’74 is the Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and professor in health policy and management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His latest book, Building a Culture Of Health: A New Imperative For American Business, was published by Springer last year.

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James F. Gaines G’75 Gr’77, jimgaines3@earthlink.net, is proud to announce that the science-fiction novel Life Sentence, co-written with his son, has been published on Amazon Kindle Direct. “Set on several distant worlds, it deals with future hostile and collaborative relationships between humans and alien species, especially highly matriarchal marsupials and honor-obsessed cephalopods, as well as an other-worldly surgery team partly based on the Penn Med School. We also manage the blog Gaines Science Fiction.”

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Steven M. Shulman C’76 recently sold his interest in Rodman Insurance Agency in Needham Mass., where he has worked since 1984. Having received a master’s in elementary education from the Lynch School of Education at Boston College last August and being subsequently licensed by the state, he is working three days a week at the Cabot Elementary School in Newton and substituting in other nearby schools the other days.

Celebrate Your Reunion: May 12-15, 2017

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Frank J. Cerza C’77 is a shareholder and real-estate attorney in the New York office of the law firm of Carlton Fields and head of its Italian Desk. In September, he was honored by Visions/Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired for his providing them pro bono legal services.

Louis Hansell WEv’77 writes, “My son, Erik Louis Hansell, has entered the Wharton School as a member of the WG’18 cohort.”

Michael Neuman ChE’77 GCP’86 GFA’86 writes, “I’ve moved to London, to take up a post as professor of sustainable urbanism at the University of Westminster in the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment—the faculty which all of the founding members of Pink Floyd attended. I’ve also won a best-paper award this year from Town Planning Review for ‘Measuring Sustainability’; this is the oldest city-planning journal in the world, founded in 1909. My co-edited new book is Engendering Cities (Routledge).”

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Dr. Vincent J. Palusci C’80 “announces the publication of my sixth book, Child Abuse: Children With Disabilities, which was published by Nova Science in New York. I live in Manhattan, with my wife, Roslyn Scheiber Palusci C’80, and am professor of pediatrics at NYU School of Medicine. The book has a wonderful chapter by Dr. Kushol Gupta C’97 Gr’03, who is a research assistant professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the Perelman School of Medicine and assistant director of the Penn Band.”

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Dr. Richard Levine C’81 M’85 GM’89, Cliffside Park, N.J., an ophthalmologist and eye surgeon, last autumn went to Haiti on a charity eye-surgical mission sponsored by Living With Faith Charities. He and his team of doctors restored sight to more than 60 people suffering from complete blindness from cataracts. Hurricane Matthew was on the radar and struck only days after he returned home. He hopes to return with his surgical team for another mission to Haiti in the next year or so, and scale-up the program to restore sight to over 100 people.

Karen A. Reardon C’81 writes, “I successfully defended my doctoral dissertation, ‘Examining the Critical Role of Social Capital in Entrepreneurship: A Qualitative Study of Emerging Nonprofit Organizations,’ in July, and in August the University of Michigan conferred upon me the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology. I am an assistant professor in the management and leadership department of the La Salle University School of Business in Philadelphia. My husband, Dan Luchay, and I and our family live in Jenkintown.”

Celebrate Your Reunion: May 12-15, 2017

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Doug Goudsward W’82 writes, “I am an accountant by day, a writer-cartoonist by night, and I have recently published a book, The Faking of the President. Written before the 2016 campaign even got off the ground, it is a parody of the three-ring circus and media feeding frenzy that our modern elections have become. Bunny Hoest, creator of the syndicated cartoon panel The Lockhorns, has since become a fan and invited me to the annual gathering held at her Long Island estate; the ‘Bunny Bash’ is attended by cartooning world ‘royalty,’ including cartoonists for Mad magazine and The New Yorker.”

Maryanne Greenfield C’82 has been appointed senior vice president of institutional advancement for the National Academy Foundation, “a national network of education, business, and community leaders who work together to ensure high-school students are college, career, and future ready.”

Susan Lerner Levin C’82 GEd’82 writes, “My husband, John Levin W’82, and I have now been living in Israel since 2006. Our children all live here, as well as our first grandchild. Sadly, John was hit with young-onset dementia six years ago and the disease has progressed to an advanced stage. He has many fond memories of Penn (as do I) and may very well remember those who were close to him at the University. If you are or plan to be in Israel and want to visit, please be in touch: susan_levin@yahoo.com. Wishing all our former classmates a wonderful 35th Reunion, much health, and happiness.”

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Debbie Shrager C’85 writes, “I have been appointed senior attorney for Ernie DuBester, a member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which adjudicates labor disputes in the federal sector. Prior to joining the FLRA, I worked in the appellate-court branch of the National Labor Relations Board, and, more recently, was a law librarian in academic, court, and government libraries.”

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Ralph H. Cathcart C’86 writes, “I was recently recognized as a Super Lawyer 2016 (New York metro area) by Super Lawyers magazine and was named by the WTR Report as among the top 1,000 attorneys in the world. In addition to being a partner at Ladas & Parry, LLP, an international boutique intellectual-property law firm, I am also an adjunct professor of law at Fordham University.”

Lawrence J. Kotler C’86, a business-bankruptcy specialist and partner with the Philadelphia law firm of Duane Morris LLP, in November was inducted as a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. He is also president of the consumer bankruptcy-assistance project of Philadelphia Legal Assistance.

Rhonda Mateer Ross GEd’86 maintains a practice in State College, Pa., that provides services to children, adolescents, and adults in psychotherapy and in neurofeedback. In September, she became board-certified by the Biofeedback Certification International Alliance. She notes, “Neurofeedback … saved my daughter’s life. She had a traumatic brain injury from a bike accident a few years ago. She spent two years in bed where she could not even do the most basic of activities, and needed to withdraw from high school. It was awful. After dozens of doctors and medicines and even a trip to a world-renowned sleep doctor, we discovered neurofeedback. Within a few months she was back in school and is now a pre-med major in college.”

Dr. Joyce C. White Gr’86, director of the Ban Chiang Project at the Penn Museum, was an expert witness, as a Southeast Asian archaeologist, in an investigative team that recently received a US Attorneys Award for distinguished service in a US Justice Department case, called Operation Antiquity; it involved illegal importing and selling of ancient archaeological resources from China, Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia. Her citation noted, “Typically, expert witnesses are not recognized, but then again, you were not the typical expert witness. Your experience, expertise, and advice were woven by the agent team into the very fabric of the investigation.”

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Justine Fitzgerald C’91 W’91 has joined Hirschler Fleischer P.C. as a partner in its real-estate practice in Tysons, Va.

Kiera Reilly C’93 writes that she and Lisa Nass Grabelle C’93 L’96 and Chrissy Bass Hofbeck C’93 are “thrilled with the number of classmates that already joined our 25th Reunion committee. We are hoping to have more classmates sign up to help. Email us at upenn1993@gmail.com. We are continuing our monthly countdown to the Reunion: #93tothe25th; also check the Frankly Penn blog, our Twitter @Penn1993, Facebook group (Penn Class of 1993), and Instagram @Penn_1993 to follow along. We are working on community service events for the winter; check our Facebook group and your email so you can participate.”

Jessica Zirkel-Rubin C’93 writes, “Inspired by a recently unearthed Valentine’s Day DP classified ad, ad-writer Gustave Lipman W’94 generously treated his 1990 valentines, Aimee Alexander C’93, Christine O’Connor McNelly C’93 GEd’95, Caroline Waxler C’93, and me, to a lavish dinner in New York (champagne courtesy of Ali Weiss Brady C’93, in absentia). Ever the debonair host, Gus asked only donations to Penn in return for his generosity, but we also felt it necessary to thank him here for his largesse.”

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Jon Lasser GEd’94 has co-written, with his daughter Sage, a children’s book, Grow Happy, published by Magination Press (American Psychological Association); it “uses positive psychology to help children cultivate happiness.” He is a professor at Texas State University and she is a psychology major at the University of Texas.

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Brad E. Coren C’96, an attorney who maintains a private practice in Weston, Fla., is president-elect of the local Rotary club.

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Rachel Ehrlich Albanese C’98 L’01 has joined the restructuring practice of law firm DLA Piper LLP as a partner in its New York office. She had been with Akin Gump. She is a member of the International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation.

Robin Barone C’98 is pleased to share that “my startup, Diplomat Books, marked its first anniversary with the announcement of a full catalog of USA books, a successful crowdfunding campaign, and national distributor. My mission, to teach children about the world through adventure travel books, is coming to a city near you in 2017.”

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Andy Maskin W’99 writes, “My wife, Chloe, and I are proud to announce the birth of our daughter, Madeleine, in October. She was born a bit early while we were hiking the Inca Trail in Peru. We thought at 38 weeks we still had plenty of time, but she decided to make a surprise debut! She was fussy on the long flight home the next day, but was happy to meet her older brother Henry upon our return.”

00

Alison Bernstein C’00 writes, “This summer, I joined the faculty of Michigan State University as an assistant professor in the Department of Translational Science and Molecular Medicine at the College of Human Medicine in Grand Rapids. We moved from Atlanta, so our kids, Abigail (eight) and Noah (three), are excited for real snow.”

Sebby Borriello G’00 writes, “I have accepted the position of chief commercial officer at SK Life Science, a division of SK Holdings, based in Fair Lawn, N.J. Its mission is to become a global, fully integrated pharmaceutical company with innovative new drugs in the pipeline for the CNS area.”

Celebrate Your Reunion: May 12-15, 2017

02

Lauren B. Stakias C’02 in October was appointed director of institutional advancement for the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan. She was most recently director of exhibition and program funding at the Museum of Modern Art.

03

Ali Budin Auerbach C’03 and Jason Auerbach C’04 are happy to announce, “We are once again sleep deprived. On Aug. 3, we welcomed our daughter Penelope Jane (aka PENNy) to the world. Big siblings Henry and Lucy are looking forward to showing Penny around campus on their next trip down to Philly.”

04

Jason Auerbach C’04 see Ali Budin Auerbach C’03.

Jill Berkin C’04 married Eric Rose on Sept. 4 at the Sephardic Temple in Cedarhurst, N.Y. Penn friends Naomi Berkowitz C’04, Naomi Itzkowitz C’04, Rinat Becher Yogev W’03, Arielle Bernstein C’03, Rachel Fleischer C’03, Eloise Kauvar Hirsch C’03, Marjie Rosenfelt Levine C’03, Aviva Moster C’03, Michelle Wallenstein C’03, and Lauren Ordene Edelstein C’04 dressed up in Quakers gear while dancing the hora. Risa Small Wolf C’03 celebrated in spirit from labor and delivery (see last issue of the Gazette). We recently moved back to New York, where I am a maternal fetal-medicine fellow at Montefiore and Eric is a clinical psychologist and director of counseling and psychological services at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken.”

Dr. Sadie Mitchell GrN’07 writes, “I recently published a No. 1 bestselling book, Miracles on Demand: Transform Your Ordinary Struggles Into Extraordinary Blessings With God’s Help. A delightful collection of contemporary and biblical stories illustrating how God’s intervention changed lives, it can be purchased at www.thehappyhealthychristian.com or at Amazon. I present seminars on spiritual caregiving to families, nursing-home employees, and healthcare students. I launched the Spiritual Care of Homebound Elderly campaign to fund a project to provide free Christian fellowship for Philadelphia area residents. Please contact me at my website.”

Alison Sara Weiss C’07, an editor with Sky Pony Press in Manhattan, in September was named a 2016 Publishers Weekly Star Watch Honoree, “recognizing her as one of the rising stars in the publishing industry.”

08

Ryan Choi C’08, www.ryanckchoi.com, writes, “I’m a composer and musician and I’m writing to share that my debut album, Three Dancers, released last February, won last year’s Independent Music Award for Best Instrumental EP; the ceremony took place at Lincoln Center in New York in November. I’ve also released a number of other works this year that have been garnering some international acclaim, and, in the near future, I have a composition that will be appearing on an upcoming compilation album, I Never Meta Guitar IV, assembled by noted composer Elliott Sharp, to be released on Clean Feed Records. “

Lital Helman GL’08 GrL’10 and her husband, Jacob Bacon, live in Jerusalem; she recently gave birth to Tsuf Rivka Helman.

10

Thaddeus S. Kirk C’10, Philadelphia, has joined the law firm of Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg LLP as an associate in its litigation department.